The Illicitor's Code #1

005: The Super Power Verification Test

"Your name is Dim-Dim Damisch, the second son of Justin and Karina Damisch, and the younger brother of Damian Damisch. Right?" the question was asked by an old man with graying hair, and Dim-Dim nodded quickly. "Please answer with yes or no," the old man added again, his voice slightly shaking because he was too old.

"Yes, sir," Dim-Dim replied.

"Since your father died when you were a toddler, you live alone with your mother in Toronto, Ontario Province, Canada. According to Mr. Damisch's report, you were found in a state of—ah, being metamorphosed into an eagle when monsters were attacking your city. Right?"

Dim-Dim looked up at his brother on the balcony, then looked at the man again. "Actually, I transformed into a hawk, Sir. A Copper's Hawk."

"Show me," said the old man, and Dim-Dim immediately transformed into the hawk with gray feathers and red eyes.

The old man looked at Dim-Dim for a few seconds, then looked back down at his notes. "About ten minutes after that, a monster arrived at your house, and then you turned into a grizzly bear. Right?"

Dim-Dim nodded.

"Show me," the old man said again.

Dim-Dim concentrated for a moment, then turned into a grizzly bear. He could feel the bear's strength in his body, and realized how threatening he looked.

The examiner took notes for a moment, then looked at Dim-Dim.

"Please get back into yourself."

Dim-Dim immediately transformed into himself, and briefly looked up at his brother above. His brother looked back at Dim-Dim with a serious expression on his face.

"You're able to morph into a Copper's Hawk and a Grizzly Bear in a fraction of a second, and your metamorphosis also changes the clothes you wear," said the old man, read his notes. "Other than these two animals, can you transform yourself into other animals?"

"Y-yes," Dim-Dim replied.

"Show me."

Dim-Dim swallowed for a moment. He knew he could turn himself into a cat, a squirrel, and a fly. But fly was not cool. So he turned himself into an African Elephant, and the old man looked up at him, took notes and then said, "Can you turn yourself into other than that?" He didn't seem impressed.

Dim-Dim transformed himself into a panda, a Komodo dragon, and then a giraffe.

"Do you like animals, Dim-Dim Damisch?" the old man asked, and Dim-Dim nodded. "Why did you choose Komodo dragons?"

"They have an acute sense of smell, Sir. Especially to the dead bodies—they definitely can help polices. And I like their appearance. Like dinosaurs."

"Dinosaurs? Not dragon?" The old man tapped the cover of his book for a moment, and looked at him with interest. "Well then... can you transform into... a very large snake? A python, perhaps? A big python?"

"Do you mean Burmese python, Sir?" asked Dim-Dim.

The man nodded. "The giant anaconda in the old movies."

Boa, not Python, Dim-Dim thought.

Dim-Dim concentrated and turned into a huge green anaconda. For a moment he felt his skin crawl and became very hungry. Extremely hungry. He could feel the warm temperature of the human bodies around him by his tongue, and became even hungrier. Before he hurts someone, he hurriedly turned back into himself. He had never seen a giant anaconda except in an old movie he once watched with his late father, and he had always imagined the animal to be cruel and hungry. But, beside being so hungry, he was also worried. This snake knows what Dim-Dim knows: humans kill big snakes without even a second thought.

The man opened his book and took notes for a moment.

"Have you ever seen a giant gorilla, Dim-Dim Damisch? In an old movie, maybe?"

Dim-Dim looked up at his brother for an answer, and the man shook his head.

"No, sir," Dim-Dim replied. He did not remember seeing that movie.

"What about dragons?" the man asked. "A big animal creature that can spit fire? Can you turn into one?"

From above, there was a chuckle from Oriyan Parenzee.

Dim-Dim tried to ignore the voice, and closed his eyes to concentrate. He imagined himself big, with thick skin, four legs, a pair of large wings, a tail... but how could a dragon spit fire? Was there oil and a lighter in its throat?

Dim-Dim opened his eyes, and found himself to be a giant house gecko, without wings. A Venator faints on the upper balcony, and Dim-Dim sees that the woman is Charlotte. He saw Dr. Valee crouching beside her, then Dim-Dim looked back at the old man in front of him in panic.

"Can you spit fire?" the old man asked.

Dim-Dim tried to spit fire, but instead found himself spitting nothing but saliva in the corner of the hall.

Ugh.

The old man jotted down more notes, longer than usual, and Dim-Dim looked up at his older brother, anxious. His brother just looked at him resignedly, while Oriyan grinned beside him, clearly enjoying the show.

"Well, please wait for the results of your verification test in a few minutes, Dim-Dim Damisch."

*****

"He's not questioning our opinions about Dim-Dim's super power," said Dr. Valee as he adjusted his glasses that had slipped down his nose, his face troubled as the five of them sat on the waiting bench outside the test hall. The other 5 Venators were sent to Brazil. "Why? That's not usual."

"I have no idea," said Damian. "Do you feel better, Charlotte?" he asked to Charlotte, and then handed her a bottle of mineral water.

Charlotte, who was just awake, looked at Dim-Dim while biting her lip. "Sorry, I'm phobic of geckos. A Komodo dragon, yes. A crocodile, yes. A house g-gecko, big no." she said, her face almost crying. "Did I ruin your exam?"

"Don't worry about it," Dim-Dim and Damian said.

A few minutes later, a young woman came in carrying several pieces of paper. "Dim-Dim Damisch, the director of Safe City requested you to come to his office on the 5th floor. Please follow me, I will show you the way."

Dim-Dim immediately got up from his seat, but his older brother immediately stood beside him. "I am his elder brother. I will accompany him."

"Alright. Then you two please follow me," said the woman.

They then followed her into the elevator.

In the elevator, Dim-Dim noticed his brother's hardened face, and suddenly became anxious.

"Did my brother pass the test or not?" Damian asked the young woman.

"They want to give him a choice, Mr. Damisch," the woman replied.

His brother's jaw tightened. "What choice? To work as a monster bait or to be banished from Safe City?"

"Monster bait!?" asked Dim-Dim in horror, as the woman snapped, "Sir!"

"I'm wrong, aren't I?" asked Damian sarcastically. "Why not just tell us that my brother didn't pass the test?"

The woman sighed. "Please don't confront us, Mr. Damisch. If you keep acting like this, you won't be allowed to accompany your brother to the director's office."

Those words seemed to silence Damian successfully. He grumpily stood at the corner of the elevator, and then walked beside Dim-Dim after the elevator doors opened on the 5th floor.

"This way," the woman said, directing them towards a large door of varnished brown wood.

In front of the door, Clarinassa was waiting with other venators that Dim-Dim had never seen before.

For some reason, their presence in front of the director's office made Damian very mad.

"Clary, what the hell are you doing here?" asked Damian in a hostile tone.

Clarinassa huffed and shifted her weight from one foot to the other. "None of your business, Damian Damisch," she replied coldly. But then she smiled at Dim-Dim. "Hi, Dim-Dim. Let me introduce them to you, these are my team members," she said to Dim-Dim. "There's Icaros Alexandrovich, Florence Taslim, Xavera Mathers, and Jay Oliver. Guys, this is Dim-Dim Damisch, Damian's little brother."

Dim-Dim was about to shake hands with all of them, but his brother had pulled Dim-Dim behind him. "Don't mind those carrion flies, Dim-Dim," his brother said irritably. Dim-Dim wanted to ask what the sentence meant, but his brother had pulled him to enter the director's room.

Inside the room, behind a desk that was almost full with piles of files, sat Jin Miller, the director of Save City New Jersey. The man peered over the top of the pile of papers, and waved at them.

"Hey, Mr. Damisch. I got a report from Ms. Clark about your team's performance in Toronto."

"I thought you wanted to talk to my brother, Boss," Damian said hoarsely.

The man looked startled for a moment and got up to look at Dim-Dim from above the pile of files. "Oh, yes, yes. I had forgotten about that because Ms. Clark's report was so... astounding. Can you move this chair in front of my desk to my side, young boy? So that we both can discuss it more freely?"

Before Dim-Dim move forward to push the chair, Damian had already lifted the two heavy-looking chairs in front of him with one hand, and moved them beside the director.

"Strong as ever," Damian's boss commented. "Well, well, please sit near me, both of you."

Dim-Dim and Damian complied.

Up close, Jin Miller looked older than his actual age that was still 40 years old. There were many wrinkles on his face, and half of his hair was already covered with gray hair. The man searched for a moment among the files, and then pulled out a piece of paper with Dim-Dim's photo on it. Then he glanced at the paper.

"Your test results are amazing, Dim-Dim Damisch," Jin Miller said. "You got an A minus for your mastery of superpowers."

Dim-Dim was relieved to hear that. A minus is not bad, right? "Does that mean I can stay here for free, sir?"

Jin Miller puffed up his cheeks while raising his eyebrows, which Dim-Dim interpreted as an expression of consideration, and Dim-Dim was suddenly afraid.

"Sure, sure," Jin Miller replied a bit late. Dim-Dim sighed with relief, but his brother still didn't look happy. "In this place we protect people with precious superpowers like yours, Dim-Dim. Giving people like you time to learn to control their superpowers without being bothered by monsters presence," Jin Miller explained. "The thing is, you've already mastered your powers. Now that it's clear you've mastered your superpowers, aren't you interested in fighting alongside your brother and his team?"

"Sorry, but I reject this bad idea," Damian said, as Dim-Dim said, "Do you mean I can be a Venator like my brother, Sir?"

"No," Jin Miller laughed crisply at Dim-Dim. "Look at your brother, boy. Look at his physique. Look at his strength. You must realize that not everyone can be a Venator. One million humans left, yet there are only less than five hundreds Venators in the world. Doesn't that give you an idea?"

Sadly, Dim-Dim nodded. A heavy hand suddenly tapped him on the shoulder.

"It's okay, Dim-Dim," Damian whispered, soothing him. "You can apply to be a Venator when you're older."

"Oh, please don't misunderstand me, dear," Jin Miller chuckled awkwardly. "I didn't mean to underestimate you, even though you're very young. In fact, I would say that your abilities are quite unique, and beyond our expectations." Dim-Dim lifted his face to look at him, and the man now seemed more confident speaking to Dim-Dim. "That's why, Dim-Dim, we offer you to work with us as an Illicit—"

Suddenly, Damian stood up. His face was flushed red and his eyes sparkled with anger. "I did not sign for this, Boss," he said. "Not at all. My brother is only 11 years old!"

Jin Miller desperately tried to keep his face calm as the man told Damian to calm down. "Calm down, Mr. Damisch. Please return to your seat."

"How can I calm down?" Damian asked again. "You don't understand, Boss. My mother just passed away, and my brother is the only family I have right now."

Now, behind the muscles and strength that were clearly visible from the outside, Dim-Dim knew that his older brother had a fragile heart in the inside.

"If you force my brother to become an Illicitor again, I will quit!"

A bead of sweat ran down Jin Miller's temple. "Please speak logically, Mr. Damisch. You were just hailed as the best Venator in the world. People need you—"

"But I—"

"Fine!" Jin Miller shouted, now looking frustrated and resigned. "I won't force him to become an Illicitor."

"Good!" Damian said hoarsely. He now softened his voice when speaking to Dim-Dim. "Come on, Dim-Dim, I'll take you back to—"

"Wait, Mr. Damisch!" Jin Miller interjected quickly. The man now stood up from his chair and looked at them with a serious expression. "May I speak to your brother for a moment?"